More than 30 celebrities will join the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) in celebrating NIAF’s 45th Anniversary Gala virtually and honoring Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on Saturday, October 31, 2020. Dr. Fauci will be presented NIAF’s 2020 Leonardo da Vinci Award for Leadersh...
READ MOREThe National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) will celebrate its 45th Anniversary Gala virtually on Saturday, October 31, 2020, and honor Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who will be presented with NIAF’s 2020 Leonardo da Vinci Award for Leadership in Health and Science live during the G...
READ MORENine decades. 70 albums. Nearly two dozen Grammy Awards. To say that the career of vocalist Tony Bennett doesn’t rank among the most significant in the history of recorded music might be the understatement of not just one – but two - centuries. But who knew that Bennett's also a World War II veteran who recorded his first hit song decades before mo...
READ MOREWant something fabulous to play during Christmas dinner? Here’s a wonderful “Yule Log” video from Tony Bennett featuring many amazing holiday classics accompanied by delightful animation. Bennett’s original artwork is the imagery for the yule log animation from a painting titled,“Home Is Where The Heart Is,” which he initially created for the Ameri...
READ MOREIf Tony Bennett ran his own Instagram, his bio might read "musician, painter, writer, content creator," alongside "NYC -> California" and the microphone, piano and jazz hands emojis. At 93, the show biz legend is what we today call a multi-hyphenate. On top of 19 Grammys, two Emmys and a dozen books, Bennett has been quietly and successfully painti...
READ MORETony Bennett has been one of the most recognizable names (and voices) in American music for nearly seven legendary decades crooning beloved jazz favorites like “I Left My Heart In San Francisco,” “I Wanna Be Around” and “The Good Life.” With numerous awards to his credit celebrating his impressive music career (including 19 Grammys, a Grammy Lifeti...
READ MOREHe’s won 20 Grammy Awards, including a lifetime achievement award, two Emmys, been a Kennedy Center Honors inductee and has sold more than 50 million records worldwide, yet keeps a tour schedule like a new rock band promoting its first album. He’s Tony Bennett. He’s 93. And he’s coming to Biloxi. At an age when most performers long ago hung up thei...
READ MOREServing pizza and pasta to diners while singing in an Italian restaurant is not part of the typical career path for future music legends. But Tony Bennett isn’t a typical music legend and neither was the start of his career. Indeed, long before he became the world’s most famous nonagenarian vocal star — and even before he made his first record in 1...
READ MORENow considering this happened while he was in his eighties and early nineties, it is a stupendously monumental feat from a record sales perspective. Pretty much unheard of actually, selling those kinds of numbers during your eighth decade, and into your ninth, on earth. But much more than the record sales, it clearly illustrates the high level of d...
READ MOREOn the surface, there’s nothing all that surprising to have painted portraits of an Italian mom and dad inside St. Paul’s Caffe Biaggio. “She was the mama of the neighborhood,” said John D’Agostino, talking about his mom Giovanna. She was legendary in the Twin Cities during the ’70s, as the owner of her homestyle Italian restaurant in the Dinkytown...
READ MORE